Today I would like to talk about something near and dear to my heart, and that is drag queen culture. This is a social movement that has been somewhat quieter but incredibly powerful nonetheless. The first real markers of this drag revolution were the Stonewall Inn riots beginning June 28th 1969. Back in the sixties it was illegal for people to wear the clothes of the opposite gender and often people who felt compelled to dress in such a way were the targets of police raids at the few bars that allowed openly gay people to enter.
These riots were the first of their kind and paved the way for men and women to dress in whatever style or gender of clothing they saw fit. Additionally, as they were covered by multiple newspapers, they allowed the American reader a first look at an underground world.
After the Stonewall Inn riots, there were two major events in the 1980’s and 90’s that continued the proliferation of drag culture into mainstream society. The first was the premiere of the controversial documentary Paris Is Burning and the second was the rise of the Club Kid scene. Paris Is Burning was an extraordinary film that followed the lives of the performers of New York City drag balls. It depicted the participants as real people who were simply exploring their identity. Also, fun fact, the movie was the first to show the dance style of “voguing” and a year after it’s release Madonna came out with her hit single “Vogue”.The film did so well and received such high acclaim that it remains to this day one of the most significant players in the movement towards drag acceptance. Additionally, the Club Kid scene that was created around the same time garnered such widespread attention that some of the key performers, such as James St. James (seen below out of drag), were welcomed onto popular talk shows like Geraldo and The Joan Rivers Show. This showed an opening up of American society to the idea of the drag artform.
Moving into the 2,000’s there has been an even greater trend towards drag recognition through the work of the smash hit show RuPaul’s Drag Race (Creator RuPaul is pictured below both in and out of drag)The program began in February of 2009 and on November sixth of this year announced that it would be returning for season seven in January (I encourage you to take a look at that link, it has a very interesting tribute to some of the most memorable drag performances throughout history). Contestants from the show have gone on to be wildly successful. One of the most controversial people to ever compete on Drag Race, Willam Belli, is now an incredible youtube star, where she and singing Partners Vicki Vox and Detox post playful but thought provoking music videos. She has over 318K subscribers and their most popular video has 15 million views and counting. Other performers have also made names for themselves and recently Starbucks released it’s first ever LGBTQIAP (please forgive me if I have failed to include anyone’s gender identity, this is just the most inclusive acronym I know of) commercial which included two of season six’s most popular queens, Adore Delano and Bianca Del Rio.
All of this represents a growing acceptance of personal identity and the movement that has allowed drag culture to be accepted in “normal” society. Hopefully, the future will bring nothing but continued success amongst all humanity as we strive to welcome people of every shape, style, and personal expression.
